Rome City School students are now allowed to use their cellphones and laptops on the school bus.

As a result of Tuesday night’s board meeting, the city schools have dumped their policy that banned the use of digital devices on the bus. Superintendent Jeff Bearden, who is a proponent of technological learning, claims the mandate was out-dated. Students now are using everything from IPads to their Smartphones for school assignments.

“It’s not unusual for school systems all over to have had these types of policies in-place. They were probably developed when cell phones first came out,” Bearden says. “Students might’ve had them, and they might’ve been all trying to talk on them at the same time, which would’ve been very distracting to the bus driver. What we’re talking about now are IPads and Notebooks and things like that which students actually use to take care of assignments from schools. There’s a lot of different ways to study now.”

Also on Tuesday, the school board passed a resolution for a five-year facilities plan, which allows them to continue to accumulate state funds for repairs and renovations. As part of this plan, surveyors from the Georgia Department of Education reviewed the city school buildings in March. Their only critique of the schools was to consider consolidating North Heights Elementary with Main Elementary.